Embodiments of the present invention relate to a heat controlling apparatus and a detector, and particularly to a heat controlling apparatus for a detector of a CT machine and a detector for a CT machine.
A detector in a computed tomography (CT) machine may be used for receiving X-rays emitted by a CT tube and penetrating a detected object. The detector in the CT machine may consist of multiple detector modules, each of which may contain a collimator, a photodiode, a scintillator, a circuit board, etc.
During operation, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), an FPGA chip, a power chip, etc. on the circuit board will produce relatively much heat. A temperature change resulting from such heat will cause the performances of these chips and devices such as the collimator, the photodiode, the scintillator, etc. within the detector modules to change, which will result in artifacts appearing on a CT image eventually produced. Accordingly, there is a need to use a heat controlling apparatus to correctly regulate and control the temperature of the detector during operation.
The existing heat controlling apparatus mainly controls the temperature of the detector by a loop consisting of a temperature sensor, a control module and a fan. The control module controls the magnitude of the rotation speed of the fan according to the temperature outputted by the temperature sensor, so as to play the role of controlling the temperature. Such apparatus has the following disadvantages: more modules, more complicated control loop, and higher cost.